1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for controlling an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some electronic devices are operated by power supplied from a battery. Since such an electronic device naturally will cease operating when the battery is consumed, it has been proposed to monitor whether the voltage of the battery has fallen below a predetermined threshold-value voltage and halt operation beforehand in response to the battery voltage falling below the threshold-value voltage (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-105296).
Since the operating voltage of the electronic device rises owing to the halting of its operation, operation of the device can be started again. When the electronic device is started again, however, the operating voltage of the device declines again and falls below the predetermined threshold-value voltage and operation stops again. Thus, there are instances where operation stop and start are repeated. It has been proposed to prevent the repetition of operation stop and start by so arranging it that the device will not start again if operation of the device has ceased (see the specification of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-373037).
A problem with the above-cited proposal, however, is that once operation ceases, the device will remain in the state it was in at cessation of operation.